International Space Station

Space Shuttle Atlantis docked to the Russian Mir Space Station in 1995 (Photo: NASA)

The International Space Station in 2009 (Photo: NASA)

Hands down, the biggest Big Science project ever launched is so big, so expensive, and so ambitious that it is - literally - out of this world. The International Space Station, a joint collaboration of space agencies of a couple dozens of countries, is not so much a scientific project as an exercise of engineering prowess and political will.

The ISS is so expensive that it’s hard to pin down its actual cost. The European Space Agency estimates that the entire station costs €100 billion over a period of 30 years. Critics pointed out that the amount of science being done is paltry as compared to the sums of money being spent, but its advocates defended the program as a necessary first step towards manned exploration of space.